Ingredient: Tomato sauce
Category: Vegetables
Season: All
A tomato sauce is any of a very large number of sauces made primarily out of tomatoes, usually to be served as part of a dish (rather than as a condiment).
Tomato sauces are common for meat and vegetables, but they are perhaps best known as sauces for pasta dishes.
Tomatoes have a rich flavor, low liquid content, very soft flesh which breaks down easily, and the right composition to thicken up into a sauce when they are cooked (without the need of thickeners like roux).
All of these make them ideal for simple and appealing sauces .
The simplest tomato sauces consist just of chopped tomato flesh (with the skins and seeds optionally removed), cooked in a little olive oil and simmered until it loses its raw flavour, and seasoned with salt.
Water (or another, more flavourful liquid such as stock or wine) is often added to keep it from drying out too much.
Onion and garlic are almost always sweated or sauteed at the beginning before the tomato is added .
Other seasonings typically include basil, oregano, parsley, and possibly some spicy red pepper or black pepper.
Ground or chopped meat is also common .
Mexican tomato sauces
Tomato sauce was an ancient condiment in Aztec Indian food.
The first person to write of what may have been a tomato sauce was Bernardino de Sahagún , who made note of a prepared sauce that was offered for sale in the markets of Tenochtitlan (Mexico City today).
Spaniards brought the use of tomato to Europe.
Basic mexican tomato sauces are: tomato sauce (salsa de tomate rojo o jitomate) and green tomato sauce (salsa de tomate verde). The tomato sauce is stock for spicy sauces and moles.
Italian tomato sauces
The tomato has been central to Italian cuisine since its introduction from the Americas. (And after they discovered that it was not poisonous).
Outside of Italy, this perception can be quite exaggerated: many people know little of Italian cuisine beyond pasta with tomato sauce.
Italian varieties of tomato sauce range from Puttanesca sauce , seasoned with anchovies, capers, garlic, chili peppers and black olives, to Bolognese sauce, a predominantly ground-meat sauce which normally contains a small-to-moderate amount of tomato.
Most often, Italian tomato sauces can be switched with more authentic white sauces ; cavatelli is best served with traditional Italian white sauces (consisting of mostly fresh parmesan and cream), and many other traditional ingredients.
Some Italian Americans on the East Coast refer to tomato sauce as "gravy", or "tomato gravy", especially sauces with a large quantity of meat simmered in them, similar to the Italian Neapolitan ragù.
"Gravy" is the literal English translation from the Italian sugo which means sauce.
Marinara is a US-American-Italian term for a simple tomato sauce with herbs, mostly parsley and basil, but, contrary to its name (which is Italian for coastal, seafaring) without anchovies, fish or seafood.
In countries other than the United States, marinara refers to a seafood and tomato sauce.
American, European and UK supermarkets: commonly carry a variety of prepared tomato sauces described as "spaghetti sauce".
Common variations include: meat sauce , marinara sauce and sauces with mushroomsor sweet red peppers. |